The Record of the Year
The Record of the Year was an award voted by the United Kingdom public. For many years it was given in conjunction with television programmes of the same name. The first show ran in the early evening on a December Saturday just before Christmas, with the ten finalists represented as either live performances or filmed inserts or dance routines; then the phone lines were declared opened and the second show, an hour or so later, at prime time and also live, went around the TV regions revealing the votes and culminating in the announcement of the winner. It became one of the highest rated music TV ceremonies in the UK, boosting sales of CDs and then downloads in the crucial fortnight before Christmas every year. For that reason it was much respected by the industry, labels, publishers and retailers. It was the only music award in the UK to be chosen by the public. The award began in 1998 and was televised on ITV for eight years before being dropped in 2006 after disagreements over the phone voting element. Since then it had been an online poll, administered through the Record of the Year website. In 2013, the online poll was axed, signaling the end of the award.
The most frequent winner was Irish boy band Westlife, with four awards.
"Rockstar" is the first winner which did not make # 1 on the UK singles chart, and also the first by a non-UK or Irish artist.
The ten finalists were:
The ten finalists were:
The ten finalists were:
The ten finalists were:
The ten finalists were:
The ten finalists were:
After an initial selection of thirty songs, ten were selected for the final show, broadcast by ITV on Saturday 4 December 2004.
The ten finalists were:
The final was broadcast on ITV on Saturday 10 December 2005
The ten finalists were:
The Record of the Year 2006 took place online instead of ITV.
The result was:
The result was announced on Sunday 16 December 2007 with over a million people casting their votes online.
The result was:
The result was announced on Sunday 14 December 2008
The result was:
The result of the 2009 Record of the Year vote was announced on Sunday 6 December 2009.
The result of the 2010 Record of the Year.
The Result was announced on Saturday 10 December
The result of the 2011 Record of the Year.
Many have criticised the 'Record of the Year' Award, as they feel the nominations are unfairly dominated by pop acts and thus the winner is usually not the "true" record of the year. One suggested reason for this is that it is done to attract young girls, who the organisers are sure will watch the televised final and vote for the records. Others have argued that it is an attempt to boost the sales of pop artists' albums, which traditionally have limited success relative to their singles, in the crucial pre-Christmas period. Of the examples cited as evidence for this, the most famous include the exclusion of rap artist Eminem's "My Name Is..." in 1999 as he was unavailable to perform live on the Record of the Year final and the omission from nominations of rock act The Darkness' "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" in 2003, despite being one of the highest selling singles of the year.
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